Year 4, November 22nd-24th, 2019: Can't Catch A Break! Or Did We?

I'm putting this first because it was the best part of the whole weekend. He knew it perfectly several hours after learning it at church.  I had zero to do with this.  Way to go Kidustrial Park Leaders!:

Ok, ok, it's not THAT bad. But it's been a bad week sleep wise.  This whole thing of Abishai sleeping in the fireside room thing isn't working.  Against my better judgment, he slept in a short sleeve pj top and ended up in our room by 6:15 because he was cold.  But of course he didn't want to sleep. He wanted to roll around, talk, and ask for breakfast.  I did get up eventually because I was hoping to go to go get my blood drawn for labs today.  Well, on that note, it's a good thing I called first because yes, I did have to make an appointment at this particular clinic.  It's usually the next day, so I'll go first thing on Monday since it's a lab where you have to fast first and you want your lowest cortisol and blood sugar levels possible. I was generally annoyed and felt unable to accomplish much so I ended up texting Jared, "Would you like an office buddy?" after telling him my multiple woes of the morning.  And he said yes! He usually says no because Friday is his most productive day. So, Abishai packed himself up and spent the whole afternoon at Daddy's office playing cars and running around the office.  I'm sure he had some screen time in there as well. That way, I could come home and nap and boy, did I nap! 90 minutes at least! I woke up a new woman!

Meanwhile, Justin went to Grandpa's house to hang Christmas lights outside and Keturah finished her work and had her screen time. I managed to do laundry, put away dishes, take a shower, clean the bathtub and the toilets. Oh, and when I did get up this afternoon, I watched some of the videos Justin is watching for school and cleaned up some of my email that was waiting for a quiet environment to listen to or read more thoroughly. Benaiah is gone today and tomorrow to Anderson to help set up sound/lights for a conference.  We were supposed to watch Carter, but he got a contagious mouth sore.  We were very bummed, and so was his mom who wanted to be at her daughter's school program. I looked up the diagnosis and it definitely was pretty contagious and nasty and we both agreed that we didn't need to spread it to my family, especially when I already have open wounds from the biopsies still. I love helping other moms and I typically let head colds and coughs slide, but not when it's something highly contagious and hard to get rid of. Bummers for all of us.  But at least I got my nap in!

And that's about it.  We are taking next week off of school so we can start the Christmas decorating since Jared and Benaiah are both also off from school.  Then it's to Michigan for Thanksgiving. Normal weekend ahead.

Ooooooo, the way they've been wording things this week it sounded like this was going to be the end of the tour, but.....he said with a sly smile at the very end, that perhaps they can do some more dates in the spring!  I've been praying for this because I should have made the effort to go this fall.What kind of fan am I who doesn't see the one show that has music from all the records in it? But all the dates were 4 plus hrs away. Even if the tour dates are 3 hrs away, I'm finding a buddy and I'm going. That's it. No regrets. I've been pretty jealous since the tour kicked off, so I bought tickets to the Christmas show of his and Amy Grant's here in town in a week and a half, last minute. I have seen the Christmas twice, once a long time ago, and the last time I met him and that one was with Amy Grant and I met her, too. Anyway, yes, time for Smitty fun!

Uh, yup, this kid is an organizer. He took his two packages of fruit snacks and arranged them by color because he wanted to see how many there were of each color. Type A personality? Type 1 or Type 3 on the Enneagram? Who knows, but he's got some definite particular behaviors.

This guy, our nephew Auggie (Augstin), turned 9 today!  He doesn't quite look 9 to me, but he is 9 because one of the last things my sister told my mom before she died was that she was pregnant.  My mom died in 2010. Also, he was born a day before my Mom's birthday, which is tomorrow, Nov. 23rd, so it's easy to remember his birthday!  Happy 9th birthday, Auggie!

"Mom, take a picture of this!" Uh, I thought he had a leg over the fence.  Nope, he's just stretching out his pants.  Why? Who knows!

When I told him he was going to Daddy's office, it took him less than 5 minutes to get ready.  And I made him change out of his pjs.  He just put on what was still left on his floor from Sunday.  Whoops. I was just going to hang them back up anyway because they weren't dirty. He's got a gun, cars, water, snacks, and a warm hat.  He's good to go!

I find this ironic that Facebook suggested that I'm a "conversation starter" in a the Michael W. Smith fan group! When I scrolled through, I did have a lot of posts in the last few months compared to others. And I did get some interaction on those posts. I wish that happened in a lot of other places on Facebook or Instagram. Plus, I'm really only a conversation starter online. I have the worst time trying to start a conversation in real life. Once I get going, depending on the topic, I'm fine, so feel free to start a conversation with me anytime. This cracks me up though!

Yes, indeed, I put my heater under my desk sometimes when I'm really cold and crank it up to 90 degrees F so it will keep running for awhile. It's like sitting really close to a fire. And then after a while I do move it down to beside me and keep it at 80 degrees.  I find that having a constant flow of heat is better than it turning on and off when I'm sitting at my computer in the sunroom. It's set at 75 during the day to take the edge off when we are in and out of the room. I took the picture to show my inlwas and sister in law because Shauna had shared a picture of a fake fireplace channel on Netflix saying that they have the ambiance but they had to turn the air conditioner back on today because it got up to 78 degrees! That's 40 degrees warmer than we were today! I don't like to be cold, but I need the 4 seasons in my life! No thank you! We keep the house at 71 when Jared is home and 73 when he's not.  If my nose and fingers are cold, despite wearing multiple layers and moving around a bit, than it's too cold for me. End of story. I can only wear two layers of clothing (long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt) in the house before they become a hindrance to moving and too "heavy" for my muscles and restrictive, so my muscles have to work harder. I'll bundle up if I'm outside in the winter, but I don't move that much when I'm out there and it's usually for only a few minutes or hrs at most. It's a bit of sensory thing, and yes, a neurological issue with my extremities. I don't like cold feet either so I wear socks and slippers, too.  It's my space. I'll keep it as warm as I want to. It's a "luxury" to keep it the thermostat that high, but I both live and work here 90% of the time. If we were gone more, I would turn it down more. I do freeze when I'm at church or Gary and Leah's house (it's only 67 degrees over there). Anyway, it works for me!

Ok, time for some Saturday fun.  First of all, the internet is really slow today because it's Saturday and it's rainy so everyone in the neighborhood is online I suspect.  I checked my computer and I have plenty of drive space. Oh well. It forces us to not use our devices. I left early on in the day to go to my counseling.  Today was the only time she could get in their south office this week. Otherwise, she's now working mostly out of their new north office which is closer to her house I'm sure. It's a 40 minutes drive to he north side one on a good day, never mind the ridiculous traffic up there, so I politely declined going up there.  Anyway, after counseling, I went Christmas shopping!  We needed a few things from Meijer that we can't get at Aldi's anyway, and since I didn't have kids, it was a perfect time to pick up the majority of things.  I had some ideas in mind, but for Keturah especially, I didn't have a clue.  So I took my time and browsed all the toy aisles and came up with some decent solutions. Then whatever I couldn't get there, I got on Amazon. I picked up the necessary gift cards as well. So, all six of us are done except for maybe a little more sorting out for the stockings.  The traditional Howell Christmas candy has been bought (except I forgot Life Savers book! Whoops!) I couldn't find any special treats for Socks either.  Now, Aaron and Shauna are pretty much the only ones I don't have a clue for. I've got a couple of things for Gary and Leah and my siblings. Then I bought some grocery items like the special brand Scharr bread that I looked for at the other Meijer and couldn't find!  But I knew kind of wear the gluten free stuff was at our Meijer and boom, there they were! Soft rolls here I come! So, all in all it was a great shopping trip.  I have to go back out tomorrow if I want to use a coupon at a different store for some white elephant exchange gifts, but if I don't, it's ok, too.  Oh, and no Christmas shopping trip would be complete without a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks made with almond milk!  That very large gift card is coming in handy! I did have a McDonald's mocha the other day and it's not as sweet as Starbucks. But I was a little disappointed again in the temperature of the drink. It was actually drinkable right then and there. I'd like it to be a little warmer than that to start, especially on a cold and wet rainy day. I'll have to ask next time.  At least the staff were fast and friendly.

Keturah and Justin helped me unload the car and I was honest with them and said that I had to rearrange the bags a bit because there were Christmas gifts, so look away, and they did! I've hidden gifts in multiple spots in all kinds of different plastic bags and the kids are so clueless that they haven't found any.  Or, in Keturah's case, she spends all day in her bed.  Oh, the poor thing!  She took off her cast for a shower and left it off for awhile so the indents in her arm would go away.  She was cleaning her room and forgot about her arm and used her left hand to get up and really hurt herself! It took a bit of time for her arm to calm down again, and then put the cast back on.  Lesson learned for both of us, because I was trying to be lenient and let her arm breathe. Whoops. I'm sure she didn't do any more damage because it was a slight movement, but eek!

Someone gave Gary and Leah some regular sized turkeys and since I don't have room in my fridge for it, I let it thaw in a pan in the garage overnight and cooked it up today, along with mashed potatoes, salad, frozen veggies, leftover sweet potatoes, and canned jellied cranberry sauce.  Abishai thought the cranberry sauce was jello and asked for some but then didn't take a second bite because it wasn't sweet enough. Whoops!  Poor guy!  I could have made stuffing, but that's ok.  Too many carbs overall and I'm stuffed! Oh, and there was leftover cabbage Jared and made in the morning, as well as bacon and bacon grease we added to the potatoes. We also basted the turkey with bacon grease.  Yum! That means, by next weekend, we will have had 4 turkey dinners!  One for Leah's birthday last Tuesday.  One today and tomorrow (leftovers after church).  One with the Cook family on Thursday.  And then one with the Johnson family in Muskegon on Friday.  This will be the first time we are going from Lansing to Muskegon in the same trip.  But I'm excited because we finally get to see cousins RJ and Eric, Donna's brothers!  We haven't seen them in 10 years! It's kind of a last minute road trip, but it's worth it.  I'll manage. We don't have anything going on here for this holiday and not much for Christmas either. Nice and quiet compared to last year when Shauna and the girls were up spending time with Shauna's mom.  Oh well, yeah. I remember them having a turkey dinner meal together in the hospital complete with decorations and a few days later, Nancy gave the girls their Christmas presents early.  Then she passed away about a week later. Oh well, I hope Shauna's doing ok.

I almost teared up today myself because today would have been my Mom's 70th birthday. Of course I got her favorite Christmas cherry cordial chocolates (I buy the dark ones now but she liked the milk chocolate ones, and now there are ones with coconut, too!) with the rest of the Howell candy traditions.  I didn't even care about the price that much.  It's a Howell tradition and since I don't have to buy gifts for my parents, it's just a way to remember that specific tradition.  In fact, I need to go clean out the Christmas tree jar from candy I think that is two or even three years old! Whoops! Not having my family around during the holidays is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It's a blessing that we don't have to worry about planning things together and making it all work out, but it's a curse because it does feel like something's missing and I do feel the loneliness. So although this is the first Thanksgiving without her mom but the second Christmas without her mom, I'm sure Shauna has a lot of mixed emotions this year. I know they had a quiet Christmas last year because they had just gotten home from here. And now Shauna has had a whole to process not only her Mom's death, but her own cancer, and I'm sure she's still recovering from that.  That's why I did go ahead and make plans for us to go down to New Orleans over Christmas break.  We haven't seen them since July and I want to see for myself how Shauna is doing.  They are driving up to TN to be with one of her sisters before Christmas, so that will be good and not dramatic since it's the sister she gets along with. Lots to think about and pray about as we go through this season.

Anywho, Jared built a fire today because I asked for it, so I diligently sat in the fireside room with him this afternoon and got my two sewing repairs done.  One was a 5 minute simple seam fix on a sweater, but the other one was much more complicated.  I didn't take pictures though.  It was the horse from an '80s TV show called Rainbow Brite, so the horse belongs to me. Well, they used some interesting fabric and plastic discs to make the hooves and the plastic discs had worn though the fabric. Keturah and I both think we threw away the one disc that was fully missing, which is a bummer.  But I'm afraid the fabric is the kind that sort of rots over time, and I fear it's just going to rip through the stitches again. I managed to get all the stuffing back inside the leg, which took me a long while, and sew it back up ok.  But I took my time on the stitches since it can't be replaced.  Then I actually took some super glue and glued all the stitching around the hooves, my stitches and the original stitching, just to secure it even more.  My stitching, no matter what type of stitch I use, seems to come undone over time.  I'm definitely not the sewer that my mom was, but I try. I even got to use a new color from the little spools of thread she gave me in my first sewing kit 25 or so years ago. She would be proud of Benaiah though because he was one of two people who could sew on a button in his Adulting class at school last week.  He was quite proud of that fact. My dad knew how to sew buttons and basic hems, too. A lot of tailors used to be men. Anyway, the horse took a lot longer than I expected and then I had to go make the rest of dinner.

So, I didn't get to do the computer stuff I wanted to do today.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow. We have a quiet afternoon, and I'll be home most of the evening.  I'll get caught up then.  I think I'll wait to undo the Christmas boxes until Monday.  I have a nice stack of them plus more stuff on top so I'll have to get it all down. Oh, and I discovered that my favorite storage totes, Rubbermaid Roughnecks, were discontinued! Ah!  In all of our moving of boxes in the last 18 years, I've only had one, maybe two, lids crack on me and NEVER the tote itself.  However, the other brands from the dollar store to the Sterilite ones, have broken on numerous occasions.  I was able to find some Rubbermaid totes on a feed and seed online farm store, so I bought more than I really need right now, just in case.  Yes, I should clean out the old totes and reuse them, but there are the non brand names one I would like to replace.  I really just needed a large tote for some clothes that will be going to Abishai and then a couple of smaller ones for the last two cardboard boxes holding a certain type of toy like the Paw Patrol and the marble works. I do have several large clear bins for other toys, too. Anyway, it's hard when you're favorite thing is discontinued.  In conclusion, I spent a huge amount of money today. But Christmas is nearly done, totes are bought, and a few necessities, too, like milk and fresh vegetables. I wish Jared had been as productive as I have been, but that's just not how it goes.

Ok, lots of writing, I know, but when I don't have any pictures to show because I'm busy all day, that's what you get.  Lol.

It looks Daddy joined Abishai in his artwork today. It's a tank!

Jared said we had a visit having a feast on our pumpkin.  Uh, wow, a squirrel did this within 15 minutes?  I hadn't noticed it on my way into the house. I'm surprised it's lasted this long.  We should move it to a place where the critters can enjoy it without making such a mess on our sidewalk.  Abishai was saddened by it though.  That's his pumpkin!

Abishai watched Justin play a little DS today in Justin's bed. Abishai was a crazy one today with his "pickle chin" and Justin chasing him around the house calling "Buddy!" every time Abishai trolled him and

Nearly perfect.  The turkey was definitely tender! I did good!

I love it when Keturah gets down from her bed and interacts with the family, especially making Abishai laugh!  Abishai just has that charm that everybody loves and wants to play with.

Mood. Yup. It got better as the day went on and I got some stuff done.  I get tired of having to follow up on everyone to make sure tasks get done, so I just do them myself sometimes instead of enlisting help.  Hopefully I don't regret that tomorrow. You wanted to switch vehicles, so when are you going to clean out one and put your stuff in the other? You all saw that the squirrel ate the pumpkin and there are leaves all over the sidewalk making it slippery, but all choose to ignore it.  And a myriad of other things that are completely ignored by all and they think that "magic" happens and everything is put right like having clean clothes and laundry and cooked food to eat. Yup, it's the same old story. Is "responsibility fatigue" a thing?  Because if it is, I have it.  "Delegate" they say makes life easier.  I would disagree. Not if you have a certain level of expectation. When 14 yr olds forget to brush their teeth or take their sister's lemonade not thinking whose it might be and offers it to his friend. When the 11 yr old still can't seem to wash her hair properly because if she did, she would be out of shampoo by now and her hair wouldn't look so greasy. There's lots of other things that really should be other's responsibilities but they either don't care or don't know how or give up too easily when it gets tough, and then those responsibilities become mine after a period of time.  Sometimes, I just can't wait any longer and can't walk paste a fire alarm that should have been put up 6 months ago.  What good does it do on a pile of boxes that were supposed to be taken care of 1 year ago? I take care of 95% of the cleaning, organizing, and yes, fixing sometimes of the house.  I'm responsible for 6 mouths to feed and clothe and then I'm told that I need to go to bed earlier when the only time I don't have to pay attention to anyone is between 11pm and 1am. Yup, introvert over here needs her alone time and time to be "off the clock."  And that's where I stand today.

Today's sermon was decent. Some good points for every family member of ours. Shifting blame. Idol worship (like ministry work, homeschooling, traveling, food, etc). Breaking covenants. Listening to bad influences. Oh yeah, lots of things. Leah still had some vertigo so we didn't have lunch with her today.  Thank goodness we had lots of leftovers from yesterday. Elliot came over as well. Screen time happened. Youth group happened. Abishai and I had some one on one time. I figured out a schedule for the week so I don't go too crazy with holiday travel.

Benaiah told me late last night how he had a great time being a roadie setting up the stage and lights and sound.  And he got to be the STAGE MANAGER to Jason French (beloved CIY speaker!) and hang out with many other cool people that have done things with CIY. He doesn't enjoy the hard labor as much as sitting behind a computer pushing buttons but he learned a lot and is making himself known even more.  Oh, and one of the guys remembered him as the talented Rubix cube solver because he had one out on he desk! This kid is great at networking, just like his grandfather. He's not afraid to talk to adults and listen and learn. You couldn't have said that about him 4 years ago though. So maybe there's hope for his siblings.  They will have a much different experience than he did, which is a great thing in lots of ways, but I worry that they have a "soft" life and haven't been forced to grow up because they are home.  Oh, that's what happened.  Neither Keturah nor Justin put their alarm clocks on, and I figured they've been getting up in time, so I didn't put mine on either.  Well, at 8:20am, I finally walk out to the kitchen, and Keturah's painting a rainbow and still in her pjs and she hasn't eaten anything.  Grandma was going to be picking them up in 15 minutes. Justin was still in bed! I'm so grateful I don't have to wake them up early for school every day to get them out the door because what a panic! Justin had a leftover brownie and a banana and Keturah had a package of cracker sticks with fake cheese for breakfast. That's not enough food for the morning. Good grief!  I was so mad! They are 11 and 14 and yes you both have regular alarm clocks that don't require using a phone so, figure it out. Ah!

Benaiah got another sweet package of goodies from Ozark! I don't know if they treat all their recruits that way, or they just want people from Indian Creek, but it's appreciated! And yes, we do need to finish his official application.  I don't know where we left off with it exactly.  Maybe just the FAFSA?  Maybe official SAT/ACT scores? I don't know.  We don't have an exactly time table because we really don't have to do anything until next fall. We are considering this a practice run and if we don't get all the steps right the first time, then that's ok.  He really doesn't want  to submit test scores until he brings them up.

Today's outfit came out to be "professional."

Finally got to wear a shirt I bought last year from Goodwill. It doesn't fit any better, but I found a way to hide that fact and dealt with it being form fitting.

Shoes were ok.  A bit uncomfortable. I wore my new jeans and then kept them on the rest of the day to get used to them.  Not too bad.

Leah liked how the frost on the car looked symmetrical this morning when she picked up the kids.

Not the best day to be dusting and notice this picture again. Mom's 70th birthday would have been yesterday.  She died 9 years ago. Dad died 8 years ago. Kristina, in the pink, won't talk to me. Paul-Mike, in the back, just finalized a nasty divorce and is doing ok, but has gained a lot of weight after leaving the National Guard.  Stefanie, in the striped black shirt and I are ok, but she divorced the guy sitting next to her. And this was the second to last picture we took of all of us. The last one would be in my mother's hospital room with her wearing a wig.  We did have one more kid then. Circa 2005. Oh, and Jared had hair.  That's always a plus for me.

At least the kids spent a few minutes outside today.

Real gold (now safely hidden away again), 100% pure essential oils Frankincense and Myrrh.  I had Abishai smell them tonight and play with the gold for 10 seconds. Kind of cool when you have the real deal on hand without thinking about it.

Speaking of real deals. THIS was what the turkey grease and bones made from the turkey we made yesterday. Oh man oh man. So full of rich goodness!  I put everything into the crockpot after Jared deboned the turkey and cooked it low and slow overnight. There was still so much turkey left on the bone! I then took out all the bones and came up with 3 bags of turkey broth with bits of meat in it ready for some soup!

My ingenious hack to hold the bags open. I think I recently saw an Instagram video of someone putting icing into a piping bag (which I've done this trick before) by putting the bag into a tall glass and then folding the edges over the side of the glass. So I thought I would apply it here.  And it worked extremely well!  Note to self!

I had to find my biggest platters that would still fit in the freezer so I could lay out the turkey brother flat while it froze, making it easy to store later.  The tricky part was keeping the closure folder over just in case there was any spillage from kids knocking it in the freezer.  I wish I had a deep freezer where I could things out on trays, but I don't.

I bet every set of parents from the Baby Boomer generation had one of these.  Leah still uses hers.  This was my mom's. I only use it in the rare occasion I have a turkey too big for the crockpot. I have to thoroughly clean off the sticky grease and dust that accumulates on it from sitting up on top of a cabinet from lack of use.  I don't think I've used it in this house before. But it's a keeper.

I don't understand why I get a ton of goosebumps with the trailers and special videos they keep putting out.  No, I don't have tickets yet. I'm sure it will be in the theaters for two months or more. Yes, we should have a movie marathon before we go. My parents, especially my dad, loved science fiction and I'm sure he saw the originals in the movie theater during their original run in the '70's. We have two boxed VHS sets, one from the early 80's and another when they rereleased them in the late '90's or something.  I don't know if we own all the other episodes, but I've seen them at least once.  Abishai loves Star Wars. He can name all the characters and vehicles. And the other kids know a lot about it too. Yup, we appreciate it Star Wars a lot.

Abishai was training his new recruit, Benny, how to be a policeman on a motorcycle.

Oh wow! Keturah is a celebrity now! Just kidding, but I love that so many people signed her cast!  And because this one won't be cut into and thrown away by the doctor, it's kind of like a memory tool for who she knew in her middle grade years.  Even Luke Green (pizza king) signed it!  And Sam I Am! Ah! Keturah smiled a lot when she showed me. She is well loved by her small group and the leaders at church.  My mama heart is full!

Awww, so many friends!

The End